Oddbean new post about | logout
▲ ▼
Zettour | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 @dassauerkraut @Hoss “Cyber Santa” Delgado They still plate it. We're about a decade from it being profitable to melt them down so it was made illegal relatively recently.
▲ ▼
dassauerkraut | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @Zettour @Hoss “Cyber Santa” Delgado 
Must have been a recent update to the law, cause I remember defacing currency, which included smelting coins, was a crime back when I was a kid. But that law won't matter in the slightest if copper becomes that valuable. Meth heads don't two shits what they rob their copper from.
▲ ▼
Hoss “Cyber Santa” Delgado | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 It's been illegal to melt down pennies and nickels for their metal content since 2007. I don't think a single person has ever been prosecuted for it, though. You'd have to have an industrial-sized penny melting operation before the feds would even notice.